Scott Peters respected his high-school football coaches, but as an offensive lineman, his instructions were pretty simple.

"Go crush somebody."

Concussions became part of the game as he moved from high school to Arizona State to seven years in the NFL, including a stint with the Arizona Cardinals.

Now, with his former Cardinals teammate, defensive lineman Gabe Watson, the Safe program has been born out of a mixed-martial-arts gym in Scottsdale called Fight Ready. Incorporating jujitsu moves, it teaches blocking and pass-rushing techniques with the hands.

Since his football career ended in 2009, Peters has been a consultant for the NFL and the NCAA, and several times during the week he can be found working with high-school kids on how to get the most out of their hands to win the play.

Late in his football career, Peters got involved in mixed-martial arts. He discovered that 7-year-old kids have better technique than seasoned NFL offensive linemen.

"There's a lot of information out there on scheme, but who is teaching technique," Peters said. "At the highest levels of the game, you're just not getting it there, because there is so little time. So you're getting by on size and strength.

"The player development level in college is bigger, faster, stronger and how they're getting better. Gabe and I wanted to do was provide that with people. What do you do when you're done? Disappear? We want to provide information for players.

"If they know what they're doing, there is a correlation between safety and knowing exactly what you're doing. There's no mystery here about what it takes to be good."

There are quarterback coaching gurus, speed and conditioning coaches. But blocking and pass rushing teaching?

Peters researched it and didn't see anything like that.

And with the alarming reports on concussions that have led to disabilities and lawsuits among ex-NFL players, Peters and Watson took a proactive approach.

They don't expect to stop concussions, but they feel they can curtail it some by teaching techniques with the use of hands, quick burst moves that keeps the head away from the first immediate impact.

Several high-school football teams in the Valley and outside of Maricopa County have gotten involved with the Safe program.

"We don't have anything like this in Prescott, so this is a nice commute," said Cindy Cooley, whose son Quinten is a sophomore lineman at Prescott High involved in the Safe program. "It's hard to find anyone who can teach these skills to these kids."

For a couple of hours a day, players will work on drills with Peters and Watson, who shows no mercy lined up against high-school linemen with quick moves that is all part of the learning process.

On bare feet on a rubber mat inside Fight Ready Gym (which Peters initially opened and owned in 2008), players go through a series of drills against one another that is part big-man competition and mostly instruction and correction.

Peoria Centennial junior offensive lineman Marshal Nathe says he feels he has gained more in two months working with Safe than he did in his first two years of high-school football.

"In high school, what you learn is to be mean," Nathe said. "Here, you learn ridiculous technique. All these different mechanics, different postures, different angles, all implemented together, it makes a machine."

Peters said he learned pass-blocking technique growing up through trial and error and figured things out on his own.

"We didn't have good access when we were playing," Peters said. "You find out a lot of information. Players are getting bigger and faster.

"We put together this model to identify the problem. It took a while to get here."

Peters brought in respected NFL offensive line coaching guru Jim McNally recently to talk to the linemen during a Safe workout.

McNally, credited for shaping former Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Anthony Munoz's Hall of Fame career, praises the work Peters and Watson is doing with helping kids learn proper technique in the football trenches.

"It's just awesome," McNally said. "He's teaching them things they may never learn until they get to pro football."

Watson is able to provide tips to impressionable high-school offensive linemen on how to counter the defensive lineman's moves.

He said he learned tae kwon do in high school, which complemented his pass-rush moves.

"It's mental," Watson said. "There are movements, shakes, even sounds that can impact the play. A lot of sensory overload. It's just getting yourself ready for all of that."

Peters calls the Safe program "the martial arts of football."

"We put in a whole progression to learn how to body control and basics on how to make contact," he said. "We teach them like professionals."